"We are all participating in this disaster as users and we want to express our sorrow."
"We have gone so often to Our Mother, the Star of the Sea, to wash away our sorrows. " " It will be good to bathe Her this time." " ames Singleton will perform his composition for Lasiren in offering, and poet Moose Jackson will recite a litany to her."
"Perhaps she will deign to possess one of us and will tell us what she needs, how we can give back to her, and how the world can shift through this horrible contamination of the Gulf waters." " We will listen for Lasiren's voice telling us what would be of help now. It's so much about awareness and mindfulness. " "Maybe in healing her, we will heal ourselves."
On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field. The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5,000 barrels per day (790 m3/d). On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster.
BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. The use of such devices is not mandated by U.S. regulators.
![On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd[57] on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field. The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5,000 barrels per day (790 m3/d). On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster.[58] BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. The use of such devices is not mandated by U.S. regulators.[59] The U.S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation.[60] On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing.[61] Scientists have been requesting the right to monitor the amount of oil that is actually being released per day, but "'The answer is no to that,' a BP spokesman, Tom Mueller, said on Saturday, May 15. 'We're not going to take any extra efforts now to calculate flow there at this point. It's not relevant to the response effort, and it might even detract from the response effort.'"[62] Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzed videotape of the leak using particle image velocimetry and estimated oil flow rates at between 56,000 to 84,000 barrels per day (8,900 to 13,400 m3/d), or equivalent to one Exxon Valdez spill every 3.5 to 2.4 days.[63] A second, smaller leak has been estimated to be releasing 25,000 barrels per day (4,000 m3/d) by itself,[64] suggesting that the total size of the leak may well be in excess of 100,000 barrels per day and became the largest oil spill in US history.](../img/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill.jpg)
The U.S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation.
On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing.
Scientists have been requesting the right to monitor the amount of oil that is actually being released per day, but "'The answer is no to that,' a BP spokesman, Tom Mueller, said on Saturday, May 15. 'We're not going to take any extra efforts now to calculate flow there at this point. It's not relevant to the response effort, and it might even detract from the response effort.' "Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzed videotape of the leak using particle image velocimetry and estimated oil flow rates at between 56,000 to 84,000 barrels per day (8,900 to 13,400 m3/d), or equivalent to one Exxon Valdez spill every 3.5 to 2.4 days.
A second, smaller leak has been estimated to be releasing 25,000 barrels per day (4,000 m3/d) by itself, suggesting that the total size of the leak may well be in excess of 100,000 barrels per day and became the largest oil spill in US history.
More than 400 species live in the islands and marshlands at risk, including the endangered Kemp's Ridley turtle. In the national refuges most at risk, about 34,000 birds have been counted, including gulls, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, terns, and blue herons.
As of May 30, dead animals collected from the spill zone included 491 dead birds, 227 sea turtles, and 27 dolphins, although according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service these animals have not been determined to have been killed by the oil.
Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia indicated that the oil could harm fish directly, and microbes used to consume the oil would also add to the reduction of oxygen in the water, with effects being felt higher up the food chain.
According to Joye, it could take the ecosystem years and possibly decades to recover from such an infusion of oil and gas.
On Tuesday May 18, 2010, BP chief executive Tony Hayward insisted the environmental impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be "very, very modest".
It is possible the Gulf Stream sea currents may spread the oil into the Atlantic Ocean.
If oil follows the Loop Current to the east coast of the United States, it could impact wildlife even without the oil reaching the beaches.
Duke University marine biologist Larry Crowder said threatened loggerhead turtles on Carolina beaches could swim out into contaminated waters.
Sea birds, mammals, and dolphins could also be affected. Ninety percent of North Carolina's commercially valuable sea life spawn off the coast and could be contaminated if oil reaches the area. Douglas Rader, a scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said prey could be negatively affected as well. Steve Ross of UNC-Wilmington said coral reefs off the East Coast could be smothered by too much oil.
Damage to the ocean floor is as yet unknown, and marine life between the ocean floor and the surface could be affected.
Sick workers By early June 2010, dozens of people, had filed complaints with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals regarding oil exposure. Eleven people had been treated and released from one New Orleans hospital alone, complaining of respiratory problems, headaches and nausea.
WHAT: A public prayer ceremony for the Spirits of the Sea, for the oil in the Gulf.
WHY: To apologize to the Spirits of the Ocean and to encourage the natural healing of the waters of the Gulf.
WHEN: Sunday, June 27th, Last Sunday in June – 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: New Orleans, On the Levee, Oak Street at the River, Uptown (near the electric tower), and all along the Mississippi River, and wherever you are…
DRESS: All white, or white with blue headscarves
SCHEDULE:
5:00 - 5:30 pm: Reiki circle (energy healing) to encourage the Ocean's natural healing ability
5:30 - 6:30 pm: Kirtan (Hindu call-and-response chanting) and Sufi Healing Chant
6:30 - 7:00 pm: Prayers of Atonement and Healing, led by various local religious leaders
7:00 - 9:00/10:00 pm: Ceremony in Apology to Lasiren and Agwe, two great Spirits of the Ocean. Led by Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman and La Source Anicenne Ounfo
10:00 until…: Drumming, dancing
We ask people and communities all along the River, from Headwaters to Gulf, to join with us in ceremony and prayer. Please pass this message on. We are all connected. We are all in this together.
Sponsored by The New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Avenue. In renovation for our 2011 opening, the Center is dedicated to healing the community on all levels of sustainability: physical, environmental, emotional, intellectual, social, economic, and spiritual. For more information contact Sallie Ann Glassman, Interim Director, at (504) 948-9961 or at info@neworleanshealingcenter.org
Mambo Sallie Ann has been practicing Voodoo in New Orleans since 1977. She traveled to Haiti in 1995 to undergo the week-long “couche” initiation rituals; during these rituals, she was ordained as Ounsi, Kanzo and Mambo Asogwe, or a High Priestess of Vodou. Mambo Sallie Ann is one of the few white Americans to have been ordained through the traditional Haitian initiation. As an American woman of Jewish-Ukrainian heritage with a thorough knowledge of the Kabala and ritual magick, she brings a unique perspective to the traditional practices of vodou.
Sallie Ann Glassman (born 1954) is a Vodou practitioner, author, artist and New Orleans, Louisiana personality who has appeared in numerous national newspapers and electronic media broadcasts.
Glassman has lectured extensively and has received international television, radio and magazine coverage, including a front page article in the New York Times and a feature on World News Tonight. She has received mention in other publications including Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal,, National Geographic and the Washington Post. Island of Salvation Botanica on Piety Street in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans is adorned with artwork by Glassman.
Born in Maine and of Jewish-Ukrainian heritage, Glassman has been practicing Vodou in New Orleans since 1977 and is one of few White Americans to have been ordained via the traditional Haitian initiation. She owns "Island of Salvation Botanica", a store and art gallery with religious supplies, medicinal herbs, and Haitian and local artworks. She appears in the film Hexing A Hurricane.
Counted as one of the twenty most active Voodoo practitioners in the United States, Priestess Mambo Sallie Ann Glassman is known for promoting positive thoughts through her Voodoo faith. She is also an historian on Voodoo tradition and its roots in Hatian Vodun.
Island of Salvation Botanica
Sallie Ann Glassman
835 Piety St.
New Orleans, LA. 70117
(504) 948-9961
FeyVodou.com
The Island of Salvation Botanica makes no claims as to the efficacy of any of the products sold on this website. All items are sold as curios only.
Mambo Sallie Ann is the founder of La Source Ancienne Ounfo and the founder of the Island of Salvation Botanica, a resource for Vodoun religious supplies and a showcase for Mambo Sallie Ann’s Vodou-inspired art. Renowned for her powerful workings and community-based rituals, Mambo Sallie Ann is one of the most personable and accessible of the powerful New Orleans Voodoo Priestesses.
Sally Ann Glassman possessed by the spirit of Marie Laveau was featured on the first show for Sci Fi Investigates.
A large crowd attended this year’s ritual, including many members of the national media. Representatives of NBC, the SciFi Channel ,(Deborah (Debbie) Dobrydney gets her formal voodoo bapstism head washes by Sallie Ann Glassman Above.) National Geographic Magazine mingled with devout vodusi and the curious as Mambo Sallie Ann once again entreated the help and assistance of the Loas, most especially that of Marie Laveau, in facing the first hurricane season since Katrina.
SCI FI INVESTIGATES SEASON 1 FIRST OCTOBER 12, 2006 SHOW http://www.scifi.com/investigates/index.php
Sallie Ann Glassamn host several private and public rituals each year.
Hurricane Protection Ritual
This ritual is held each July, approximately a month into New Orleans’ annual hurricane season. Under the direction of Mambo Sallie Ann Glassman and La Source Ancienne Ounfo, the ritual is held to honor the powerful Petwo Lwa Erzulie Dantor and to thank her for continued protection in the face of these powerful and destruction forces of Nature. Mambo Sallie Ann assembles the servite around the peristile in her temple where offerings are made and rituals are performed to invoke Dantor across the dark waters of the Great Abyss, asking her to keep her faithful safe for another year. Appropriate offerings at the Hurricane Protection ritual include spicy fried pork, corn and egg omelets, spicy cakes and candies such as “Red Hots” and “Hot Tamales,” rum, whiskey, cigars, Florida Water, and storm water. Dantor is syncretized with the Catholic Our Lady of Prompt Succor and the Black Madonnas of Poland, among others. Mambo Sallie Ann and the Ounfo have been holding the Hurricane Protection Ritual each year for the past eight years, and each year New Orleans has been protected.
However, the destruction and havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina have tempted many to suggest that Dantor finally failed her servite and the City. Devotees of this powerful Lwa are quick to point out that, actually, Hurricane Katrina did turn away from New Orleans at the last minute: after making landfall in Louisiana’s southern Plaquemines Parish, Katrina turned eastward and vented her worst fury on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Believers in Dantor and the power of this yearly ritual credit this last minute turn to the great Lwa and reiterate what officials all across the region have said again and again: This was not a direct hit; had Hurricane Katrina been a direct hit, there would be nothing but water where the City now stands. Thanks to Erzulie Dantor, many believe, there is something left of New Orleans today.
Buy your copy now!
"Vodou" is the spelling preferred by practitioners who revere this powerful, ancient tradition - and Vodou Visions provides and inspirtaional and authentic guide to its history, practices, and creative applications. It describes the tools and techniques for developing the magical mind and honoring the soul, while revealing how Vodou can release creative spritituallity and open doors to self-awareness. Comprehensive and inviting, Vodou Visions introduces readers to Vodou's rich history, powerful ancestors, and vibrant spirits, known as Lwa. With more than one hundred breathtaking illustrations, Vodou Visions reveals how to honor and invoke the Lwa with specific ceremonial offerings and litanies. Using methods drawn from more than twenty years of practice, Vodou pirestess Sallie Ann Glassman shares purification and empowerment rituals for individuals, commuinities, homes, and spiritual spaces. For more advanced practitioners, Glassman describes ways to deepen communication with the Lwa and to give thanks for an ongoing spiritual relationship. The visions of the Lwa bring a living experience of the Spirit into daily life. Glassman welcomes readers to a community of faith and -- above all -- to a journey toward creative spirituality that will enrich and affirm their lives.
Amazon.com Review
Like many native religions, Vodou (often referred to as "Voodoo") has been scorned and ridiculed in mainstream Judeo-Christian communities. "The word 'Vodou' sends chills down the spines of most people, and conjures up age-old terrors of sorcery, black magic, and bogeymen lurking under the bed," writes author Sallie Ann Glassman (New Orleans Voodoo Tarot/Book and Card Set). This enticing compendium of the origins and practice of Vodou makes for a fascinating read, explaining how music, dance, and artistic expression are the heart and soul of this complicated religion. "What I discovered was a vibrant, beautiful, and ecstatic religion that was free from dogma, guilt or coercion," says Glassman, a thoughtful and articulate Jewish woman who first began studying New Orleans Vodou in 1975.
Its sophisticated spiritual philosophy has absorbed rituals from every place it's entered. The dances and customs of French Colonial New Orleans mix with the Native American Indian use of rattles and cornmeal. Yet many of its numerous magical deities come from the west coast of Africa, where Vodou originated. It is now reported to have 50 million followers worldwide, but with compelling invitations such as this one, it is bound to attract many more converts. --Gail Hudson
Review
I approached Ms. Glassman's book with tremendous excitement, having benefitted greatly from her work in The New Orleans Voodoo Tarot, and was not disappointed. The book has taken the basic principles of vodou, and made them accessible and practical to serious practitioners and newcomers alike. With an extremely warm tone and a welcoming voice, Ms. Glassman invites the reader into a wonderful world of mystery and healing. The book eschews tawdry spells for love and revenge and concentrates instead on the real essence of vodou--deep spiritual communion and communication. The book encourages the reader to explore the world of spirit on many levels and provides ample information in order to establish effective contact with the lwa. It also explores the history of the religion and details rituals from the simple to the extravagant. These rituals can provide a new peace and sense of awe that will leave the reader breathless. For those who have worked with Ms. Glassman's tarot deck, the information provided relating to the various lwa will heighten and strengthen knowledge of and communication with the lwa. Adding to the descriptions featured in the tarot book, the book takes one that much further on the road to understanding and communicating with the powerful and beautiful lwa. You will not be disappointed in this book. I give it my highest recommendation --Amazon.com
I came away from "Vodou Visions: An Encounter with the Divine Mystery" with eyes opened to a fresh point of view. Sallie Ann Glassman is a creative genius. A wonderful artist who artfully presents the Vodou cosmology in word and image, in a way that wets the appetite for more. As an ATR (African Traditional Religion) practitioner I found the work respectful, inclusive, insightful, entertaining yet smart. Glassman is a true talent by creating such a concise work on a very elaborate cosmology and deep subject. "Vodou Visions" is a passport to a fascinating world. Kudos, for a job well done! I highly recommend this book as an introduction to the mysterious world of the lwa and the Vodou vision. --Amazon.com
Sallie Ann Glassman has written an extraordinary book about an extraordinary subject. VODOU VISIONS gives a most cogent, accessible, and moving view of a body of sacral thought -- really, an entire imaginative culture -- that is of profound importance, rarely studied, and almost invariably exploited or aligned. Ms. Glassman's approach is unqiue. She frames her exegesis and celebration of Vodou as a spiritual autobiography. Her persoanl journey helps us understand the religion that she studies, and appreciate its intensely personal transformative power. VODOU VISIONS is appropriately and vividly personal. But Ms. Glassman also places Vodou in its culture, and in world culture. Her work demonstrates both the singularity and the centrism of Vodou. This is a book that is scholarly in its essence, and historical in its scope. It is also a book that is remarkable in its art. Ms. Glassman is a stunningly gifted writer. Her prose is brilliantly intelligent, and entirely original. Her artwork is breathtaking, and sublimely interrelated with her thought and her uses of language. Almost everyone who has reviewed VODOU VISIONS has praised it in appropriately warm and respectful terms. One reviewer, whose comments generally are highly positive, maintains that VODOU VISIONS replicates Ms. Galssman's earlier book. I have reread Ms. Glassman's earlier book (which is superb, and I cannot understand the reviewer's charge. The two works seem to me to have nothing in common, other than high distinction and exceptional scholarship and artistry. VODOU VISIONS is without question the most compelling work on its subject to appear in recent years. Experts and readers new to the subject will relish this utterly wonderful book. --Amazon.com
From the Inside Flap
A completely accessible guide to practicing Vodou and deepening your connection with this bountiful life force
"Vodou" is the spelling preferred by practitioners who revere this powerful, ancient tradition--and Vodou Visions is the first book to provide an inspirational and authentic guide to its history, practices, and creative applications. It describes the tools and techniques for developing the magical mind and honoring the soul, while revealing how Vodou can release creative spirituality and open doors to self-awareness.
Comprehensive and inviting, this book introduces readers to Vodou's rich history, powerful ancestors, and vibrant spirits, known as Lwa. With more than one hundred breathtaking illustrations, Vodou Visions reveals how to honor and invoke the Lwa with specific ceremonial offerings and litanies. Using methods drawn from more than twenty years of practice, Vodou priestess Sallie Ann Glassman shares purification and empowerment rituals for individuals, communities, homes, and spiritual spaces. For more advanced practitioners, Glassman describes ways to deepen communication with the Lwa and to give thanks for an ongoing spiritual relationship. The visions of the Lwa bring a living experience of the Spirit into daily life.
Glassman welcomes readers to a community of faith and--above all--to a journey toward a creative spirituality that will enrich and affirm their lives.
Buy it here now!
The first tarot to celebrate an African-American culture, this book and 79-card deck capture both the spirit and the imagery of Voodoo's African, West Indian, and Catholic influences. Ancient and earth-honoring, Voodoo's practices take on different forms specific to time and place, but its essence remains focused on the loa--the potent spiritual forces of Voodoo that are manifested directly through human beings and their actions.
The authors draw strong parallels between the Waite and Thoth Tarots, the Kabalistic Tree of Life, and the Voodoo tradition as it is practiced in New Orleans. Just as the major and minor arcana of the Tarot represent the archetypes of the human psyche and the natural forces of our world, so do the loa of Voodoo embody the primal energies of the universe. With a variety of spreads and readings, the authors show how the Tarot can be an idea channel through which the loa exercise their powers to teach, advise, and initiate the serious student into their mysteries.
Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse By Brad Steiger is an engrossing Number 1 Bestseller documentation that sets a new precedence in the truths of what Zombie Lore really is.
Featuring 30 chilling stories of real-life zombie encounters, this comprehensive and unsettling study draws upon traditions found throughout the world to dispel common depictions of zombies as lurching, flesh-eating automatons made popular by countless movies and books. This fascinating collection includes the stories of the Devil Baby of Bourbon Street, a monstrous creature complete with horns and tail that still lurks in the shadows of the Big Easy; Black Mama Courteaux and the great zombie war, involving hundreds of zombie soldiers battling for the supremacy of their queen; and the swamp child of Mama Cree, who still roams the bayous of Louisiana. In addition to the stories, a variety of zombie-related facts are explored, including ceremonies and initiations, zombies throughout history, sacred zombie and voodoo-related sites, and zombies and monsters of the Bible.
